Kirkland & Ellis International LLP represented BlueBay Asset Management LLP, a leading specialist manager of fixed income and alternative investments, in the final closing of the BlueBay Direct Lending Fund. The fund has raised more than €800 million of commitments from institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies and family offices.
The Kirkland team that represented BlueBay was led by London-based private funds partner Kate Downey and included partners Mark Mifsud and John MacGarty and associate David Christmas.
The BlueBay Direct Lending Fund will make investments between €20 million and €100 million in U.K. and Northern European midmarket companies with an emphasis on targeting high-quality businesses with an enterprise value of less than €500 million. The fund aims to provide primarily senior and unsubordinated loans for acquisitions, capital growth, restructuring and liquidity situations. To date, approximately 20 percent of the fund has been deployed in a number of deals.
“This is a very large fundraising in Europe in an important market space at the moment,” Kirkland partner Kate Downey said. “Funds such as the BlueBay Direct Lending Fund are well-positioned to capitalize on the market opportunity that exists given the ongoing disintermediation in the European banking system and are extremely appealing to a broad range of investors. We are delighted to have represented BlueBay on such a successful closing.”
Kirkland has one of the largest private funds practices in the world with nearly 100 attorneys focused on private funds across nine offices in six time zones. The Firm has represented nearly 350 unique private fund sponsors in raising more than $443 billion in new capital for approximately 670 funds since 1995, and regularly represents leading institutional investors in connection with their investments in private funds.
